About San Leandro's Bayfair Center

With tears in her eyes, this recently divorced woman spent a few days packing her belongings into boxes, going through "memory lane" at almost every step. Almost every item had something that was special some long time ago, but not any more. The day before the movers come to collect her things, she sat down for the last time at her beautiful dining room table and light a candle, put some soft background music and began to eat her last diner at her old house: she had shrimp, caviar and soda.

Once she finished half her diner, she went into each room in the house and took down the curtain rods, methodically she stuffed half eaten shrimp shells dipped in caviar into the hollow rods and put them back up. She cleared the house and left for the last time.

Then her ex-husband and his new girlfriend took over the house and happily moved in, for a few weeks all went well, then a bad smell began to make the house an uncomfortable place to be in, they tried cleaning everything, airing the place out, calling a pest inspector to make sure there were no dead rodents under the house. Carpets were steam cleaned, air ducts were inspected, air fresheners were installed everywhere, but nothing worked!

The stench made it impossible to live in the house and they decided to move out and rent a place while they tried to sell the house. Almost two months later and having reduced the price almost in half, they could not find a buyer for the stinky house, as word got out about the problem, Realtors even refused to show it anymore.

Then the ex-wife called the man who had cheated her and with whom she has had a bitter divorce, she asked how things were going, he told her about the problems with the rotten house, she listened politely and even told him that she missed her old house, and that she would be willing to reduce her divorce settlement in exchange for getting the house at about an 80% discount of what the house had been worth.

The ex immediately agreed but only with the condition that she sign the papers that same day. within hours, his lawyers delivered the paperwork and the deal was done. Two days later the ex-husband and his girlfriend come back to the house to take the last pieces of furniture, he was not happy that he had given so much to the ex, so he took everything he could to his new place... including the curtain rods!

Happy Endings Can Happen Almost Everywhere, Don't You Love Them?

Not too far from Bayfair Center at the corner of Hesperian Boulevard and Lewelling Boulevard is San Leandro's newest eatery, In-N-Out Burgers.

The Southern California institution has finally come to San Leandro. Burgers, fries, shakes and Soft drinks are the only things on the menu. A simple menu keeps the restaurant running at top efficiency and cutting operating costs keeping prices fair for the consumer.

San Leandro's In-N-Out is not the familiar white, red and yellow color scheme. This In-N-Out has a different look to it. The entire property where this restaurantpad is located is part of the redevelopment of the old Target store. Wal-Mart will be taking over that location. The In-N-Out appears to be giving us a preview of what the Wal-Mart will end up looking like.

No In-N-Out would be complete without the palm trees crossed into an "X" someplace out in the landscaping. According to wikipedia, it was one of the owners homage to his favorite movie, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World. In that movie the buried treasure was stashed underneath the giant "W" which was two sets of crossed palms.

Bon Appetite

Near the corner of Bancroft Avenue, East 14th Street, 150th Avenue and Hesperian Boulevard in San Leandro is Ricky's Sports Bar. Rated as the #2 sports bar in the nation by Sports Illustrated Magazine.

Here are some videos from their web page. http://www.rickys.com/videos/best_sports_bar.cfm if you don't believe me take a look for yourself.

Ricky's has been around for what seems like forever in San Leandro. It's always been a family friendly location thanks to owner Ricky Ricardo's "No Knucklehead Policy"

Ricky's is party central at Superbowl and World Series time. It is not uncommon for professional players to stop on by when passing through town. You'll never know who you'll meet in Ricky's.

Don't feel like driving, the Bayfair BART station is just a short 10 minute walk from Ricky's.

Ricky's is located near San Leandro's Bayfair Center area. Down Hesperian Bouelvard is Harry's Hof-Brau, which is worthy of it's own blog posting one of these days too. I personally like the Del Taco franchise across the street.

Ricky's has easy access from Interstate 580 from the 150TH Avenue / Fairmont Drive exit. From Interstate 880 take the Hesperian Boulevard exit. From Interstate 238 take the Hesperian Boulevard exit as well.

If you would like to move near Bayfair Center and the #2 sports bar in the nation, give me a call. I would very much like to work with you to find your own Superbowl Central.

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On a side note to sports and football, did you know that my great uncle Wilfred "Wink" Winkebach was the official inventor of "fantasy football". You can google him and fantasy football. I personally like the wikipedia article. Here is a link to Fantasy Football Magazine's article about him http://www.fspnet.com/wink.pdf He was also one of the limited partner owners of a real football team, you may have heard of them "The Oakland Raiders"

Hi there, I had the opportunity to visit Bayfair Center again yesterday.

I had to replace my old cell phone because it wouldn't hold a charge anymore. I had to go to the AT&T store at the mall. The store at East 14th and Juana didn't have the model I needed. So I had to make the trek across town.

When I got to the Mall I was thinking how much it has changed since I was a child. I remember having lunch at the Woolworth's lunch counter. The grilled cheese sandwich at the lunchcounter was always just great comfort food.

Back then Woolworth's was near the location of the current mall entrance to Kohl's Department Store. Woolworth's opened up to the open air walkway.

During the 1970s the open air walkway and center court escalators were enclosed in to the mall.

I remember the Rollerrina Roller Rink that was located in the parking lot near the Century theaters along East 14th Street. It was fun to roll around the rink to the music. The Rink was old back then and not nearly as nice as the newer Golden Skate out in Dublin.

Out near the Roller Rink was also a Golf Driving Range.

Near the 159th avenue entrance to the Bayfair Bart Station was the Go-Kart track. That was fun to do, It was neat to rev up the little lawn mower engines and race your buddies. It was nothing fancy like the Malibu Grand Prix.

Anyway back to the mall memories. The were lots of stores that were there that aren't now. Knott's Berry Farm had a store in the mall selling jams and jellies. The Knott's store looked like one of the buildings at the ghost town section of Knott's Berry Farm amusement park. Dryer's Grand Ice Cream had an Ice Cream Parlour on the outside of the mall near the current Target store. The Dryer's Grand Ice Cream Parlour was much like a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour but it served Dryer's Ice Cream. When Dryer's closed down, the Kasper's Hot Dogs that was near the Bart and Hesperian Boulveard move into a portion of the Dryer's location.

Out where Kasper's, Bayfair Bowling Alley and the Montgomery Ward's Automotive Center was is now located the 24 Hour Fitness and Pets Smart.

Out where the Fashion Center is now (Pier 1) was the Drive-In Movie theater.

Target replaced the two story Montgomery Ward's store that occupied the same location. It was a great store that had just about everything that you were looking for.